ASUS PCE-AC66 review: 802.11ac via PCIe

WiFi upgrade for your desktop

By Sander AlmekindersMonday April 22, 2013 09:58 AM

Introduction

The new standard 802.11ac sounds great of course, but you need to be able to use it as well. But that's always the case we transitioning to a new system. A product from ASUS, the PCE-AC66, lets you connect your desktop PC via 802.11ac to your router, adding WiFi to your system. We went hands-on to find out whether we could achieve higher transfer rates in combination with the ASUS RT-AC66U router than we previously had.

The PCE-AC66 consists of two parts, an expansion slot that you put in a PCIe slot on your motherboard, and three antennas. These antennas can be mounted directly on the card on the back of your PC, or an a little external array with a 1m cable. The latter gives you a bit more flexibility for placement. ASUS claims this method delivers better performance than any other router in bridge mode, in part due to the included software that lets you fine-tune the performance.

This product will only work in computers that have expansion slots, so it's not for your laptop. Judging from the large red heatsink, the color that ASUS typically uses for its ROG line of products, it's aimed at gamers.